Conventionally, a charger of a corona discharge method of an image forming apparatus such as a copier or a printer is broadly divided into a wire discharge method (Corotron charger, Scorotron charger, etc.) and a pin discharge method (pin electrode, sawtooth discharge electrode, etc.). As a cleaning means for cleaning these discharge electrodes, for a wire electrode of the wire discharge method, a cleaning method for wrapping a wire with a cleaning member such as felt and moving the cleaning member in the longitudinal direction of the charger is general.
With respect to the pin discharge method, particularly the cleaning method for a sawtooth discharge electrode, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-211940, a cleaning method for moving a cylindrical cleaning member along the sawtooth discharge electrode and press-fitting the cylindrical cleaning member into the front end of the sawtooth discharge electrode is known.
In the cleaning member by rolling contact of the roller disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-211940, discharge products, toner, and dust are removed from the front end of the saw teeth. However, the removed discharge products, toner, and dust are not only adhered to the cleaning roller but also may fall inside the plate covering the discharge electrode. The discharge products, toner, and dust fallen inside the plate, hereafter, are adhered to the grid for controlling discharge from the discharge electrode by a wind in the main body of the image forming apparatus, thus a faulty image may be obtained.